This was extremely interesting, thank you. It also explains why my sister was turned away from an online support group she tried to join when she was diagnosed with a disease not normally seen in people until they 50 years older than her. She told me they said they didn't believe her, and I was so sad for her. I thought that they were so horrible, I guess they were just protecting themselves from something that really does happen. Posted by ScienceNerd on November 21, 2012 at 1:01 PM.

There's another great thread discussing Cienna's feature over at Metafilter, including this impressive bit:

I saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off recently, and I found the character completely unpleasant. The fact that Bueller is faking a serious illness for sympathy, and that the town is running fundraising activities for him as a result, made me feel quite disgusted. I kept expecting that this would come out, and he'd be shamed, but this doesn't happen during the movie. I can't understand why that movie is so popular - don't people see what an awful person he is, and once it comes out that he was never sick, why the town will never again come together to help a person who really is sick? Posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:03 AM on November 24 [9 favorites]